The all-around Jon Santos

" Follow your passion ... I did !!! "
           - Jon Santos


     Simple but wise words from a man named Jon Santos.



    First of all, I don't like talks because you know.. they're B-O-R-I-N-G, so when I saw his poster at our school I didn't even bothered to read it because they do not interest me and I don't even know him. Until one day, our professor said that we are required to go listen to his talk. Then, I found out that he's a comedian and I was happy because I really like comedians because they're entertaining and funny after that I was really excited to go.

     As soon as the event started, the atmosphere were really deafening because we we're expecting some joke for his introduction, but no, he started like normal and introduced himself but as soon as he realized that the mood we're really down he decided to impersonate Miriam Defensor Santiago. After that, our attention we're immediately hooked because of his impersonations and that turned the boring atmosphere around. As he goes on with his speech, he didn't fail to make the audience howl with laughter with his wit, humor, and masterful impersonation, and it's amazing how he easily transitions from Erap to Miriam Defensor Santiago.

     Although, he didn't came to our school to show us his impersonation and comedian skills, instead he was told to talk about himself. It's funny because, out of all people that will give us great life advises and to be ourselves, I never thought that it will be coming from a comedian and an impersonator. Oh' the irony, but aside the jokes and the stories, he gave us 9 points and lessons to remember as we go on with our lives.


1. Listen to everyone but choose whose words you will keep.


2. Learning will enrich you but learning what you love will make you the best version of you.


3. It might be a baby step but if it will move you forward, it is a step worth taking.


4. Knowledge is everything.


5. Win the war before the fight.


6. Adjust, adapt, evolve.


7. Always be grateful.


8. You're never alone in your journey.


9. Love yourself but learn to lose and let go.

     These lessons will help us go through everything, it worked for him, why not try it for ourselves?

"Alejandro 'Anding' Roces"

          Who is Alejandro Reyes Roces? To be honest, I've never heard of him until now. I know it's sad that I don't even know a legendary man like him, maybe because I'm not really into history or literature. At the moment I only care about myself and what's happening in the present, and for that I am truly disappointed about myself. I've read some of his short stories and I can say that he is truly legendary.

           He was a Filipino author, essayist, dramatist and a National Artist of the Philippines for literature. He served as Secretary of Education from 1961 to 1965, during the term of Philippine President Diosdado Macapagal. He was born in Manila, Philippines on July 13, 1924 and he died at May 11, 2011.

He is famously known for: 

• Changing the date of Philippine Independence Day from July 4 to June 12
• Recovering the stolen original manuscripts of Noli Me Tangere, El Filibusterismo and Mi último Adiós
• Changed the language used in Philippine passports, coins, bills and diplomas to Wikang Pambansa

          Noted for his short stories, the Manila-born Roces was married to Irene Yorston Viola (granddaughter of Maximo Viola), with whom he had a daughter, Elizabeth Roces-Pedrosa. Anding attended elementary and high school at the Ateneo de Manila University, before moving to the Arizona State University for his tertiary education. He graduated with a B.A. in Fine Arts and, not long after, attained his M.A. from Far Eastern University back in the Philippines.

          He has since received honorary doctorates from Tokyo University, Baguio's St. Louis University, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, and the Ateneo de Manila University. Roces was a captain in the Marking’s Guerilla during World War II and a columnist in Philippine dailies such as the Manila Chronicle and the Manila Times. He was previously President of the Manila Bulletin and of the CAP College Foundation.

        In 2001, Roces was appointed as Chairman of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB). Roces also became a member of the Board of Trustees of GSIS (Government Service Insurance System) and maintained a column in the Philippine Star called Roses and Thorns.

         If you wanna read some interesting short stories in your free time, I recommend Alejandro's works because every single one is a masterpiece.

References: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alejandro_Roces

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4073883.Alejandro_R_Roces

Turn Left Turn Right

"We don't meet people by accident.
They are meant to cross our paths for a reason."

Destiny..

This one word is more than enough to describe the main idea of this movie.

          Have you ever thought about your own destiny? Have you ever met someone that makes you feel that you are destined for each other? Destiny are events that will necessarily happen to a particular person or thing in the future. We don't have the power to create our own destiny, every path we take leads us to a particular destiny and we will never know what will happen because no one can foresee the future.

          The story tells of two people who live in buildings right next to each other, separated only by a wall, and are always near each other but can't seem to find one another.

          The male protagonist (John) is a violinist who works from job to job. The female protagonist (Eve) is a translator for a book publishing company. Her job is to translate foreign books into Chinese. Both of them met by accident at the park fountain, when he helps her pick up her papers that have fallen into the fountain. They find out that they had met each other when they were younger at an amusement park, when both their schools had organized a field trip to the same place. Then, Eve had asked John for his telephone number, but the two never got in touch because she left her school bag on the train and lost John's phone number. The two laugh about the past and exchange phone numbers without asking for each other's name before parting quickly because of a coming rainstorm.

          It's funny how the movie keeps on preventing them to meet again after they got to know each other and it's a wonderful thing that love keeps us from giving up. We always find ways to fight for something even though we have little chances to succeed.

          It's annoying how destiny works sometimes, just like when this two protagonists are finally giving up and trying to move on with their lives, destiny comes back and gives them hints or clues to go back to their paths and continue to pursue their love ones. But the important thing is to trust your instincts it might be disappointing at first, but trust me believing on something helps you to succeeding your goal.

Killing Us Softly

             Smoking is a habit that drains your money and kills you slowly at the same time.

               This is why Asia Pacific College (APC) created the Anti Smoking Campaign they want to make a statement, a reminder to us students that smoking is not healthy for anyone. It is so sad to see that the number of students smoking is significantly higher than the professors.

               Everyone knows the side effect of cigarettes but why do people still get seduced by it? Well, curiosity is the top reason why lots of people start smoking. Some of them think that maybe they can overcome the addiction of smoking but as we can see it's easier said than done. Another good reason is due to stress, this is why a lot of students starts smoking because they know that cigarettes eases their stress and keeps them calm to finish their school works.

               As researchers say, every cigarette you smoke takes away 14 minutes of your life. So when you start young then obviously you'll die young and the saddest part is you're not the only one killing yourself but you're killing everyone around you too.

               We all know that once you start smoking it's really hard to stop, and if you try to quit smoking your emotions might not be as in check as they were before. You may find it harder to stay in control, keep calm and be reasonable. Even if you're not an emotional person, the side effects of this drug can turn you into that kind of person.

               If you really want to stop smoking, first try to deal with your anger. You can't always avoid the anger. There will be times where it comes out of you and you just have to deal with it. In that instance, you cannot let it control you. Instead, focus on what is causing you that anger. Is it really a big deal and worth being angry about? Are you really angry or is it just that you miss your cigarettes? Asking yourself these questions may help you see how illogical and pointless your anger is. If you can avoid getting angry, then you will be able to conquer it better every time it comes up.

               "It's only one cigarette" change that mindset whenever you feel stressed or depressed because that's what starts the addiction yet again. The APC's Anti Smoking Campaign is here to remind you to stop but in the end it's still your choice.

Everything is up to you, just keep this in mind.. You've been warned.

Someone Else Wrote This

               Plagiarism is where you use anyone else's work without referencing it and acknowledging that you've used someone else's work and pass it off as your own. So that might be writing a sentence that you've read from a book or it might be cutting and pasting something from a website and not referencing either of those things.

               Plagiarism can come in many forms, certainly over the past decade or so, we've had a shift from the old style of typing up a book, or writing out a book to just cutting and pasting off websites. Now this is the most common form of plagiarism we can find, that there will be a tendency to pull paragraphs out, kind of integrate them a little bit, move some words around and pass that off as a work of the student. Sometimes it's just smaller instances where a couple of lines will drop in or it'll be quote that's not attributed or references that are missing, paraphrasing, or the knowledge simply of having thought a module, that those ideas don't belong to the student.

               I think a lot of the time, students don't realize that they are plagiarizing because of bad time management and the processes of developing effective written work. 

               The main reason students plagiarize is because for some of us, the amount of work that you get in comparison to your college work or wherever background you come from can be slightly overwhelming so then, if you leave your assignments to the last night, you just get so stressed and you just don't know what to do and feel like you can't do it. Then you realize that the easiest way is to hope for the best and copy something from the internet.

               Students can avoid plagiarizing in a number of ways. Firstly, is to make sure we reference properly so that it's very clear to know that is the source of idea and students can block off any perceived or potential plagiarism by very clearly citing. One other important way to avoid plagiarizing is through good time management and having a good plan ahead. With this, we can avoid procrastinating that leads us to plagiarize due to panic and stress.

We all know that plagiarizing is very hard to contain, because most of the time we don't even know that we're already plagiarizing. Make sure to cite references so that we don't validate somebody else's work as our own.